Hard grind finding coffee job
Desperate job hunters without any criminal convictions who have applied for dozens of jobs with no success say they would jump at any job offer to be able to better provide for their kids.
Werohia Richards and Chris Reede are among the jobseekers who contacted the Herald saying they would love to be offered any of the jobs former prisoner Mark Cropp had not taken up.
Cropp has been inundated with responses after he posted a photo of his large facial tattoo with the word DEVAST8 that he got in prison, saying it was stopping him from gaining employment. But he says he has received only two firm offers that he could potentially take up and is speaking with his parole officer about those.
Werohia Richards has been looking for employment since she and her partner moved to Auckland with their 4-year-old daughter in March.
The 22-year-old had lost count of how many jobs she had applied for, but estimated it was more than 20.
The young family had been living in the Coromandel, but moved to Auckland as her partner had been unable to get a job there.
“We moved thinking it would be easy for me to get a job in hospitality and he got a job and I still don’t have one.”
She had worked in a cafe waitressing, making coffee and had also been a cook, but was open to anything.
“I get a lot of feedback that I don’t have enough experience — I can make coffee, but I don’t have any qualifications.”
Hamilton father of one Chris Reede, 34, has been looking for almost two months and has also applied for more than 20 jobs. So far he has had five interviews. But many jobs called for heavy machinery qualifications or six months’ experience in the trade.